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Facebook Says #BARTFriday Page Was Briefly Taken Down For Administrative Concerns

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Facebook briefly took down the event page of an activist group organizing a protest set for Friday morning on the underground platform of BART's Montgomery Street Station in downtown San Francisco.

A Twitter account associated with the event — #BARTFriday: No Business As Usual — said Facebook gave "no reason for the event being deleted" from its site.

Facebook said the problem was simply administrative and that the page was restored late Thursday afternoon.

While the page was down, a Facebook spokesperson sent an email to the San Francisco Chronicle explaining the deletion as an administrative issue.

The email said the event had been removed pending the verification of the account on which the notice was posted.

Organizers of the protest are demanding that Alameda County prosecutors drop charges against 14 activists who were arrested in late November after some chained themselves to trains and halted service at West Oakland Station.

Jim Allison, a BART spokesman, told the Chronicle that the agency had no part in the page's take down.

He said the agency supports the right to peacefully protest and that a permit process is in place for demonstrators who want to gather outside the fare gates.

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